Instagram Creator Leads Scraper

Find outreach-ready Instagram creators and business accounts by niche, hashtag, keyword, or seed profile. Export flat CSV-friendly leads with profile metrics, bio signals, recent activity, and contact hints.

What does this actor do?

Instagram Creator Leads Scraper is an Apify Actor that discovers and exports Instagram creator and business account leads in a flat, stable, CSV-friendly format. It is designed for influencer discovery, outreach list building, creator sourcing, UGC prospecting, and local business prospecting.

Unlike generic Instagram scrapers, this actor is lead-generation-first — it finds commercially relevant accounts and outputs one clean lead per row, ready for CRM import, outreach, or analysis.

Each lead row includes:

• Profile identity — username, full name, profile URL, user ID
• Classification — account type, category, verified/business/creator flags
• Bio signals — email hints, phone hints, WhatsApp hints, location hints, keywords
• Audience metrics — followers, following, posts, size buckets
• Engagement snapshot — average likes/comments/views, engagement rate, posting frequency
• Lead quality — rule-based quality scoring with transparent reasons
• Commercial context — niche classification, creator size class, brand safety flags
• Geography hints — country, city, language derived from bio and profile data

How it works

1. Discovery — Finds Instagram usernames via Instagram's search API (primary) with Google/Bing/DuckDuckGo as fallback
2. Enrichment — Fetches full public profile data via Instagram's profile API (no login required)
3. Analysis — Parses bios for contact hints, computes engagement metrics, scores lead quality
4. Export — Outputs flat, CSV-friendly lead rows with all derived fields

Discovery modes

Keyword discovery

Search by niche terms to find matching Instagram accounts.

{ "searchTerms": ["beauty creator australia", "fitness coach sydney"] }

Hashtag discovery

Find active creators from hashtag-related searches.

{ "hashtags": ["ugccreator", "canberrafood", "beautycreator"] }

Seed account discovery

Start from seed accounts and discover related creators via bio keywords, category, and niche expansion.

{ "usernames": ["examplebrand1", "examplebrand2", "examplebrand3"] }

Direct profile enrichment

Enrich a list of known usernames or URLs into standardized lead rows.

{ "profileUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/example/"] }

Mixed inputs are supported — all provided input types are processed in a single run.

Sample input

Example 1 — Keyword search for beauty creators in Australia

{
  "searchTerms": ["beauty creator australia", "skincare influencer sydney"],
  "maxLeads": 50,
  "maxProfilesPerInput": 25,
  "includeRecentPosts": true,
  "recentPostsLimit": 6,
  "deduplicateProfiles": true,
  "sortBy": "relevance"
}

Example 2 — Mixed discovery with filters

{
  "searchTerms": ["fitness coach melbourne"],
  "hashtags": ["ugccreator"],
  "usernames": ["examplebrand"],
  "maxLeads": 100,
  "maxProfilesPerInput": 30,
  "includeRecentPosts": true,
  "recentPostsLimit": 12,
  "deduplicateProfiles": true,
  "minFollowers": 1000,
  "maxFollowers": 250000,
  "requireBusinessOrCreator": true,
  "requireExternalLink": false,
  "requireEmailHint": false,
  "sortBy": "engagement",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Input reference

Field	Type	Default	Description
searchTerms	string[]	["beauty creator australia"]	Niche/market search phrases
hashtags	string[]	[]	Hashtags for discovery (with or without #)
usernames	string[]	[]	Seed or direct usernames
profileUrls	string[]	[]	Seed or direct profile URLs
maxLeads	integer	100	Max total leads to return
maxProfilesPerInput	integer	100	Max profiles per individual input
includeRecentPosts	boolean	true	Analyze recent posts for engagement metrics
recentPostsLimit	integer	6	Recent posts to analyze per profile (1-12)
deduplicateProfiles	boolean	true	Remove duplicate profiles
minFollowers	integer	—	Minimum followers filter
maxFollowers	integer	—	Maximum followers filter
requireBusinessOrCreator	boolean	false	Only business/creator accounts
requireExternalLink	boolean	false	Only profiles with external link
requireEmailHint	boolean	false	Only profiles with email hint in bio
countryHint	string	—	Two-letter country code (e.g. AU, US, GB)
languageHint	string	—	Two-letter language code (e.g. en, es, fr)
sortBy	string	"relevance"	Sort: relevance, followers, engagement, recentActivity
proxyConfiguration	object	—	Apify proxy settings (residential recommended)
debugMode	boolean	false	Verbose logging

Output

Each lead row is flat and CSV-friendly — no nested JSON arrays. The output is organized into four views on Apify:

All Leads (default view)

Overview of every lead with key profile details, audience metrics, and quality signals.

{
  "username": "askellenbeauty",
  "fullName": "Ellen Malone",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/askellenbeauty/",
  "accountType": "creator",
  "categoryName": "Makeup Artist",
  "isVerified": true,
  "followersCount": 125355,
  "followsCount": 1322,
  "postsCount": 2268,
  "followersBucket": "100k-250k",
  "creatorSizeClass": "mid",
  "biography": "Pro MUA, trust the process. Sydney. Fashion and Beauty Creator of the Year. PR/enquiries: ellen@slpmgmt.com.au",
  "externalUrl": "http://askellenbeauty.bio.link/",
  "externalDomain": "askellenbeauty.bio.link",
  "hasContactHint": true,
  "hasExternalLink": true,
  "leadQualityBucket": "high_intent",
  "sourceType": "keyword",
  "sourceInput": "beauty creator australia"
}

Lead Quality

Lead scoring details with quality bucket, reason, niche classification, and brand safety.

{
  "username": "mulakiewarren",
  "fullName": "Mulakie | Beauty & Skincare",
  "followersCount": 77483,
  "followersBucket": "50k-100k",
  "creatorSizeClass": "micro",
  "accountType": "creator",
  "isVerified": true,
  "hasExternalLink": false,
  "hasContactHint": false,
  "hasBusinessCategory": true,
  "hasRecentActivity": true,
  "leadQualityBucket": "strong",
  "leadQualityReason": "public|has_followers|has_category|professional_account|recent_activity",
  "nichePrimary": "beauty",
  "nicheSecondary": "health",
  "brandSafetyFlags": "none",
  "sourceType": "keyword",
  "sourceInput": "beauty creator australia"
}

Engagement

Recent post engagement metrics including likes, comments, views, engagement rate, and content format mix.

{
  "username": "maddysbeautytalk",
  "fullName": "Maddy | Beauty Content Creator",
  "followersCount": 7642,
  "avgLikesRecent": 164,
  "avgCommentsRecent": 73,
  "avgVideoViewsRecent": 212,
  "maxLikesRecent": 207,
  "maxCommentsRecent": 105,
  "engagementRateApprox": 0.031,
  "engagementBucket": "medium",
  "recentPostsAnalyzed": 12,
  "latestPostTimestamp": "2026-03-30T09:00:59.000Z",
  "daysSinceLatestPost": 0,
  "recentPostingFrequencyBucket": "medium",
  "reelShareRecent": 0.92,
  "carouselShareRecent": 0.08,
  "imageShareRecent": 0
}

Contact Hints

Bio-derived contact signals, external links, geography, and language hints for outreach.

{
  "username": "ikimmymakeup_",
  "fullName": "Kim Tabar | Beauty Creator Australia",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/ikimmymakeup_/",
  "biography": "Brisbane, Australia. Beauty Content Creator. Collaboration: ikimmymakeup@gmail.com. ON A BREAK- Will be back in April",
  "biographyHasEmail": true,
  "biographyHasPhone": false,
  "biographyHasWhatsApp": false,
  "biographyHasLocationHint": true,
  "biographyKeywords": "creator|content creator|beauty|makeup",
  "externalUrl": "https://linktr.ee/ikimmymakeup",
  "externalDomain": "linktr.ee",
  "countryHint": "AU",
  "cityHint": "Brisbane",
  "languageHint": "en",
  "categoryName": "Digital creator"
}

Full output record

Each lead contains all fields across all views. Here is a complete record:

Use cases

• Influencer discovery — find creators in a specific niche for partnerships
• UGC outreach — build lists of UGC creators by hashtag or keyword
• Local business prospecting — find local businesses by search terms (e.g. "melbourne cafe", "sydney dentist")
• Competitor research — discover creators similar to competitor accounts using seed mode
• CRM import — export flat CSV directly into your CRM or outreach tool
• Agency workflows — automate lead list building for client campaigns

Lead quality scoring

Each lead is scored with a transparent, rule-based leadQualityBucket:

Bucket	Meaning
high_intent	Public account with strong commercial signals — has followers, external link, contact hints, business category, recent activity, and engagement
strong	Public account with good signals but missing one or two indicators
usable	Public account with basic signals — has followers and is a professional account
weak	Public account with minimal useful signals

The leadQualityReason field provides a pipe-delimited explanation of which signals contributed to the score (e.g. public|has_followers|has_link|contact_hint|has_category|professional_account|recent_activity|engagement_present).

Proxy configuration

The actor works without proxy for small runs. Residential proxies are recommended for higher volume to avoid Instagram rate limiting.

{
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Pricing

Pay-per-event pricing: one lead-result event per unique lead row output. The actor respects user spending limits — when the configured limit is reached, the run stops gracefully.

Tips for best results

• Start small — test with maxLeads: 10 to verify results before running large batches
• Use specific search terms — "beauty creator australia" works better than "beauty"
• Enable recent posts — includeRecentPosts: true gives you engagement data for lead scoring
• Use filters — set minFollowers to skip very small accounts, or requireBusinessOrCreator to focus on professional profiles
• Residential proxy — recommended for runs with 50+ leads to avoid rate limiting

Local development

cd actor
npm install
npm start      # Run with INPUT.json
npm run dev    # Run with local storage